"Your mother will be happy to see you, my son," Duwan the Elder said.
"And I her," Duwan said. He was watching as the wounded were being treated. Here and there a Drinker or two knelt beside a warrior too severely injured to be moved, waiting for the end.
Duwan the Elder turned to his leaders, who had formed behind him and were gazing at Duwan in wonder. "Form them up." he ordered, "and we will move toward home."
But the march was delayed by the arrival of a panting scout. "Leader," he shouted from a distance, "there come ones with whom you will wish to speak."
There were five of them, escorted by another scout. Their bellies were bloated and distended in the manner of those who were eating their fill for the first time in their lives.
"And who are these?" Duwan asked, as the ragged group came toward the leaders, looking to the left and right in some fear at the sight of so many dead.
"We are from Kooh, Master," said a male, bowing.
"Good," Duwan the Elder said. "I will detail some to march with you and show you the way, since you will have difficulty keeping our pace."
"Master," the male said, bowing ever lower. "There are others behind us."
"Excellent," Duwan the Elder said. "I will leave some to guide them, too." He turned to pick out a warrior or two to leave behind. As an afterthought he asked, "How many are coming?"
The swollen-bellied male bowed again. "There are too many to count, master, as many as the leaves of the trees."
Duwan, who had been staring moodily at the Drinker dead, jerked his head around. "What did you say?"
"Master, they were killing us by the dozens, by the hundreds. Every day they were killing us, and when we finally began to believe the words of the wise priest of Tseeb, we rose. We slew our masters, or at least many of them, and we left behind us a burning city."
"Du!" Duwan breathed. Tambol had once estimated for him that there were over twenty thousand slaves in the city of Kooh. He turned his burning orange eyes on his father. "There is our army," he said. "Now if they will only give us time."
"We will make the time," Duwan the Elder said.
The momentous news filled Duwan's head, almost making him forget something that had been on his mind. He did not hear his father, at first, when Duwan the Elder made a suggestion. When it was repeated:
"Duwan, I will stay with the rest to escort the hordes to our valley. Go ahead, with your mate, to greet your mother."
"Yes," Duwan said. Then he remembered. "It has been said that the Devourers have a method of recording on lasting material the spoken word. Is that true?"
A former pong nodded. "That is true, Master. It is the priestly writing. They use a colored fluid to make marks on material pressed into thin sheets from the pulp of a certain plant. I have seen this writing."
"Do you practice it?" Duwan asked.
"No, Master. That is for priests and certain temple pongs who are trained in this magic."
"Find me, among those who are coming from Kooh, one who can both record words and recite them back," Duwan said. "Bring him to me as quickly as possible."
"It will be done," the pong said.
Chapter Nine
This is the word of Duwan the Drinker, who was dead but now lives, son of Duwan and Sema, Drinkers of the Valley, led into the homeland of my fathers by the wisdom and grace of Du there to be captured and peeled by the enemy and to be returned to the earth in a spirit of irony by the High Mistress of Devourers, Elnice of Arutan.
As I died, Du lifted my spirit from my body and I looked down upon our earth from the blackness, where the lights of the night sky sang with mighty voices of crackings and whistlings and odd growlings. And Du said, "Look on my works."
And there was, near at hand, a huge ball of molten fire that shot out from its cauldron streamers of light, and below me was a ball showing the colors of blue and green and I could see whiteness covering the land and the waters and gleams of reflected light from the snowy wastes of the northland.
And Du said, "There I created you."
For we and our earth are not the center of the universe. The ball that is our earth spins and travels far through blackness and is warmed only by that molten fire.
"Du!" I said.
And Du said, "None have seen my face, much less those who in the past ignored my teaching and flaunted my word, for that which you see is nothing more than one of my lesser creations, set there in the emptiness to give life to you."
"Teach me, Master," I said, "for I am in Du's paradise." And Du said, "When I saw a need to fill the emptiness I made the sun and the earth and those other suns and earths that you, in your ignorance, call the lights in the sky. I gave you the earth, and its goodness, I gave you the succulent green, growing things and the fresh waters and there was none to come against you. I taught you a reverence for life, and I put upon that earth the small, furred animals and the farls of the forests and others that you know not. And I made you the greatest of all living things, keepers and eaters of the green grass and the fruits and the myriad of other growing things, the vines and the small flowers, the towering trees and the growing shrubs, and of the animals I gave you custody, to see, and to admire, and enjoy." And I came to know that all is a oneness, that all life is kindred, whether it be mobile, fixed, or animal. And I said, "Master, how did we err?"
And Du said, "One tasted flesh and ignored the warnings of my spokesmen. Others tasted flesh and then I brought against you the Enemy, the Devourers, and for generations I have punished you." And I asked, "How, Master, can we atone for the sins of our ancestors?"
And Du said, "A few were faithful to my word, and I led them out of the land of death."
And I asked, "Do you speak of the Drinkers of the Valley?" And Du said, "But they, too, were weak, and began to see my face in the disc of the sun, forgetting the teachings of my spokesmen. Yet there was a certain devoutness that remained, and I relent." And I said, "Du is great. What have I to do, Master, now that I am dead?"
And Du said, "My son, you sleep only, for you are my instrument. I have regretted my own creation, and you will be my instrument of punishment for those who have for so long oppressed my people." And I asked, "When I awaken, Master, how will I know the proper course?"
And Du said, "I will be with you. I will form your words as you teach my people, and I will provide helpers for you. Those you will instruct as I instruct you."
And I said, "Teach me, Master."
And Du said, "You will not take the all of any living entity, except in doing my work against the Devourers. Even then you will be merciful, for there is room for all. You will respect the rights of all brothers, neither taking nor desiring that which is theirs. You will obey me in all things, for I live, and I am unique. You will honor your old ones, and see that they have choice earth where they will await my call to paradise. You will honor the family unit, and cleave to your chosen mate, and teach your offspring the word of the one Du. You will heal the scars made upon my earth by the devourers, for their building is not my wish. You will spread my word to the far corners of the earth, and release others who are in bondage."